It states that the idea of a "jewish people" was invented in the 1800's when european nationalism was on the rise many european jews also began to look back in history and classify themselves as "a people" or "ethnic group".

The book also challenges the notion that the modern day jewish people are descendants of any group in the biblical times. The book points out extensive historical research showing that early followers of judaism happily intermarried and assimilated with other cultures, either from being conquered or conquering themselves.

The book also challenges the biblical story of the pharaoh letting jewish slaves free, then these slaves founding a nation etc etc. There is no evidence for any of these religious myths. These myths are exaggerated, made up and falsified much like any peoples makes up things about their past to make them feel more proud.

It wasn't until modern times when the jewish people considered themselves a race and that one couldn't convert to be a member of that "race". The author points out that throughout most of judaisms history, followers of judaism were converted, intermarried into other cultures and religions.

The idea of a jewish "people" or "race" is totally made up, and the grounds used to make this up are religious writings on things that are historical exaggerations or never happened.

Waiting for the pretend atheists to line up and defend religious myths.

The Jewish "people" (heavy on the "people" in the European nationalist sense) may have started in the1800s, but Jews as an identifiable group in Europe with cultural continuity started much earlier, though not of course as early as the Bible says.

Nonsense is nonsense, but the history of nonsense is a very important science.

(04-04-2013 02:59 AM)Abdul Alhazred Wrote: The Jewish "people" (heavy on the "people" in the European nationalist sense) may have started in the1800s, but Jews as an identifiable group in Europe with cultural continuity started much earlier, though not of course as early as the Bible says.

There never was a cultural continuity. The author points out in the beginning of his book and the lecture I posted above that the jewish people don't have a specific language, food, music etc etc, any of the things that one could classify a group by don't exist. In early Judaism and Islam, many cultures existed side by side and assimilated with one another, including intermarriage and conversions to or from islam or christianity or judiaism. Religions don't have a cultural continuity because many areas of the world that are different, believe in the same religions. An Islamic person in Nigeria will not be culturally the same as an Islamic person in Syria for example. A christian in Syria is not the same culturally as a christian in New York. The idea that Jewish people are of one "ethnicity" or "race" is total fabrication and there were many jewish sects in different parts of the ancient world.

There multiple sub cultures, the Yiddish culture differed from the Hasidic and all that jazz. There's major dividers in every culture.

But yes, big deal. The identification of a group went hand in hand with 1800s nationalism booms. That's just a bit of the trend. It doesn't change anything relevant. Even of they aren't mainly direct descendents.